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Dactyl (poetry)
A dactyl (Gr. δάκτυλος dáktulos, “finger”) is a foot of metrical verse . Classical Dactyl In quantitative verse, such as Ancient Greek or Latin, a dactyl is a long syllable followed by two short syllables, as determined by syllable weight. Dactyls are the metrical foot of Greek elegiac poetry, which followed a line of dactylic hexameter with one of dactylic pentameter. Dactyl in English In an accentual-syllabic verse as in English, a dactyl is a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables—the opposite of an anapaest (two unstressed followed by a stressed syllable). The word "poetry" is itself a dactyl, as pointed out in the New York Times Crossword Puzzle (Will Shortz, ed.) for May 31, 2006. A useful mnemonic for remembering this long-short-short pattern is to consider the relative lengths of the three bones of a human finger: beginning at the knuckle, it is one long bone followed by two shorter ones (hence the name "dactyl"). An example of dactylic meter is the first line of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem Evangeline, which is in dactylic hexameter: :This''' is the / for'est prim- / '''ev'al. The / 'mur'muring / '''pines and the / hem '''locks, The first five feet of the line are dactyls; the sixth a spondee. Stephen Fry quotes Robert Browning's The Lost Leader as an example of the use of dactylic metre to great effect, creating verse with "great rhythmic dash and drive": : ''Just for a hand'ful of '''sil'ver he '''left us '' : ''Just for a rib'''and to '''stick in his coat '' The first three feet in both lines are dactyls. Another example: the opening lines of Whitman's "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking" (1859), his poem about the birth of his poetic voice: : Out of the cra'dle, '''end'lessly 'rock'ing dactyl, followed by a trochee ('cradle'); then another dactyl followed by a trochee ('rocking' : '''Out of the moc'''kingbird's '''throat, the mus'ical '''shu'ttle dactyls, then a trochee ('throat, the'); then another dactyl, followed by a trochee : . . . The dactyl "out of the..." becomes a pulse that rides through the entire poem, often generating the beginning of each new line, even though the poem as a whole, as is typical for Whitman, is extremely varied and "free" in its use of metrical feet. Dactylic hexameter ::This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks, ::Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight, ::(Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "Evangeline") :: ::'''THIS is the / FOR'est pri/'ME'val. The / '''MUR'muring / '''PINES and the / HEM''locks, ::'BEAR'ded with / '''MOSS', and in / GAR'''ments / '''GREEN, indis/'TINCT' in the / TWI'''light, Double dactyl Like its opposite, the anapest, dactylic meter has a rollicking, sing-songy feel that can be used to comic effect in light verse. Those possibilities have given rise to a relatively new verse form, the Double dactyl. Dactylic rhyme Because any two words (and therefore any two lines of poetry ) will rhyme only if their final stressed syllables have the same vowel sound, two lines written in dactylic meter will rhyme only if their third from last syllables rhyme (with the following two syllables sounding identical). That unusual type of rhyme, which is neither masculine nor feminine, is called '''dactylic rhyme. References Category:Metrical feet